The Atomic Heart
by Fongzilla
Summary: Another lonely day for Caroline at Aperture Science Research Complex 18... right?
1. Prologue

Lights were flashing. Cars surrounded the entrance of the underground complex, and barricades had been set up.

They were going to seal the doors in minutes.

One of the senior technicians, Jameson, was talking.

He looked worried. "I- I don't know where we went wrong, sir." Jameson looked distraught now.

The man who he was talking to, the CEO of Aperture Science, Cave Johnson, clapped a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, son. You couldn't have done anything."

Suddenly, there were shouts and gunshots from the barricades, and the punching shots of a heavy machine gun was heard. Cave listened to the roar of another of those things as it died.

Research Complex 18 had been a failure. The Atom Forge had been a failure.

Cave sighed. He just wished that no one had to have died to make him see that.

The grizzled executive stood on the roof of a car, with his clipboard. He was taking the final roll call, making sure that everyone was out.

He went through the list of names, skipping the black marks that meant another wasted life.

He came to the last name on his list. "Caroline? Anyone seen Caroline about?"

No answer.

Dread took hold of Cave Johnson. He started talking louder. "Caroline? Has anyone seen Caroline? Does anyone know where Caroline is?"

Still no one answered. They knew this was dire.

A small voice came from within the barricade. "Cave! Cave, I'm here!"

The colour drained from the CEO's face. The man who had shouted down the President of America was know weak-kneed at the prospect of losing an employee like this.

He bolted to the entrance.

"Caroline? Caroline! CAROLINE!" Cave was shouting now.

He turned to the police officer in charge of defending the entrance. "Let her out."

The police officer shook his head."We can't. She may be infected."

Cave said "It's not an infection! It's radiation poisoning!"

The police officer still said no. "Nothing gets in. Nothing gets out." He turned to the foreman. "Close her up!"

The foreman gave the go-ahead, and the steel doors started closing.

Cave Johnson was begging now. "Please! Don't do this... don't seal her in there! She's just a girl!"

The police officer was indifferent.

The doors clanged shut with a cold finality, sealing Research Complex 18 from the cold night air.

The mighty CEO of Aperture Science cried softly as he pounded in vain on the doors.


	2. Chapter 1

Caroline opened the door to the office and sat down, morning cup of coffee in hand, and made preparations for the day ahead. She made sure her typewriter was in order, made sure the picture of herself and Mr. Johnson (which she kept in a frame on her desk) was straight, and flipped over her desk calendar.

She froze.

Caroline was shocked. She hadn't thought that it was so close to that particular date. But it was. The day was here.

June 26th.

The day the Atom Forge was due to be checked.

Caroline made her way down the hallway outside her office, passing the doors leading to the rooms where her colleagues worked. At least, where they worked during their shifts. It was holiday time, and the facility was deserted. Caroline had nowhere to go. Hadn't had anywhere to go, not in years.

She sighed. At least staying and working here over every break her co-workers took off had sent her productivity skyrocketing.

She walked past her superior's office. Caroline heard the clacking of the newton balls Cave had on his desk. The newton balls were always going.

Heading into unfamiliar parts of Aperture Science's labyrinthine Research Complex 18, Caroline came to a long-unused service corridor. She briefly wondered if she should go down there without the technicians present. And a heavily armed security team.

Caroline made a quick dash back to her office and took her two revolvers out of their case. She returned to the service corridor and flicked on the lights. It was extremely long, and straight as an arrow, with no offshoot rooms. With good reason.

Who was she kidding. She couldn't have taken a tech down to the Forge even if she wanted to.

The techs were already there.

Caroline's footsteps echoed around the corridors as she delved into the atomic heart of Aperture Science.

The facility had been empty for years. The mechanism Caroline had set up in what had formerly been Cave Johnson's office kept the newton balls clicking. Everyone had fled.

But Caroline knew there was no danger. Not in the corridors. Only in the Forge Room would they come out to play.


	3. Chapter 2

The deeper she went into the corridor, the colder Caroline got. It was quite literally kilometres long, and went kilometres into the salt mine Research Complex 18 was constructed in. Caroline passed the marker that indicated she was seven kilometres into the earth.

She was close to the main chamber.

A red glow could be seen through the entrance to the reactor complex.

The door was still blown off of its hinges. The walls surrounding the door were still marked with shotgun pellets.

The last time Caroline had been here, she had been fleeing.

She still wasn't sure that she wanted to do this.

But she had to.

Caroline stepped over the shattered remains of the door. They were there. They always were.

The people, if they could still be called that, stood around the whirling nuclear firestorm inside the main reactor, their eyes taken by it.

Caroline crept around them, revolvers drawn. If she touched one...

She looked up, ignoring the fear gnawing at her. The control room was damaged.

Caroline didn't remember the control room being like that. She needed to see what had happened.

Walking up the stairs, she looked down on the still figures. People she'd known, years ago. Co-workers.

She opened the door to the reactor control room. Caroline was terrified by what she saw.

A white robot, hanging from the ceiling. Poorly constructed, it maintained the reactor controls, which had evidently been repaired.

It turned a red eye towards Caroline, and came closer.

Caroline only just restrained herself from screaming.

The robot circled around, and Caroline noticed that several mechanical arms were controlling the panel, even as the robot inspected her.

Apparently having lost interest, the machine went back to its work. Caroline didn't relax at all.

She went back to her job, wanting to get out of there as soon as she could. Checking all around the control room, she saw that everything had been repaired. The Atom Forge was in fine working order.

Caroline turned to leave. At there it was.

Her hands flew to her mouth. She hadn't heard the thing that had formerly been one of her friends sneak up the stairwell and arrive at the doorway of the control room.

Tatters of a standard Aperture Science uniform still clung to it. Anything else was gone.

The face had a melted appearance, a consequence of three years bombardment of atoms. The arms were replaced with a mass of tendons, ending in a sharp spike. Everything on its body was red raw, and in places blood could be seen.

Caroline aimed and fired her revolvers. The twin projectiles took the monster in the head, and by the time it hit the floor, Caroline was already gone. The gunshots had woken the other things that were previously staring into the reactor, and they were angry.

They knew the impostor had harmed one of their own, and, by extension, the Forge. One roared, and the hunt was on.


	4. Chapter 3

Caroline retreated slowly down the corridor, firing her revolvers, and reloading them with hand movements rehearsed and ingrained in her consciousness since before she knew what Aperture was. A hundred metres down the corridor, the mutations raged and roared.

Caroline came to the end of the service corridor remarkably quickly, turned, and ran. She burst into the main hallway, and sealed the blast doors. The last thing she saw of the other side was the mutations scrambling into the corridor and bolting towards the main hallway. They slammed against the blast doors, and scratched at them and screamed.

Caroline slid to the floor, her back to the blast door.

Who was she kidding. Living like this was no way to exist. But she did anyway.

Kept sane only by her research, she'd spent three years down here.

Caroline noticed that, as the blast doors had sealed, a mutant arm had gotten severed underneath the door. She idly looked at it, and noticed a glint of something embedded in the arm.

A name tag.

Using a knife to pry it out of the flesh, Caroline examined it. 'Aoife'. Caroline remembered her well. She had been an incredibly bright girl. She'd worked in test chamber design department before the Forge went bad. She'd been quite an artist too. Caroline remembered a conversation they'd had a few weeks before Complex 18 had been sealed.

They were chatting over coffee on their morning break. Aoife had been showing Caroline the new concept of the test chambers.

Caroline remembered being intrigued. "So what are these going to be used for?"

The other girl had been excited about the construction of the chambers. "Well, for testing of hazardous materials and new technology. All in a completely sealed, safe sphere of metal."

Caroline had been sceptical. "Surely that's impossible. We wouldn't have the technology to create that."

Aoife tapped the sketchbook under her arm, as she sipped her decaf. "Apparently not! We're starting design of several hundred chambers, and a few are already under construction!" The break bell rang.

They'd both returned to their posts, with Aoife promising to take Caroline to show her the test chambers. As she walked out, Caroline noticed that everyone's eyes were on the blonde girl. And she'd remembered that she had wanted to be noticed like that.

Such concerns were shallow and meaningless now.

Caroline didn't know whether Aoife had made it out, or was one of those things that were currently still attempting to break through the door.

Caroline started the walk back to her office. The corridors were lit, a pleasant side effect of the hundreds of gigawatts being generated underneath her feet.

Arriving back at her office, Caroline checked the clock. It had been only an hour since she'd gone down to check the Forge, and she was exhausted.

Taking off her restricting work skirt, she clad herself in the nightgown she'd always kept spare in her office, for when she need to stay the night. She had a small office couch, which folded out into a bed. Locking the door, Caroline curled up and went to sleep.


	5. Chapter 4

The car had been stopped for about three minutes. The engine still ticked, cooling in the cold morning air.

Cave Johnson looked no different to the last time he had been here.

The executive slowly got out of the car, stopped by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. The mound of concrete, steel doors still set in the middle, rose unnaturally out of the corn field.

Reaching the doors, he still saw the faded paint that still just barely spelled 'Aperture Science Research Complex 18'. Brushing his hands against the cold metal, Cave thought back to what had been his, and his company's, greatest failure.

Perhaps she was still down there. It certainly wasn't impossible, given the amount of food and water stored down there. And Cave briefly remembered the little bed Caroline had kept in her office. Cave had thought it sad that there was nowhere for her to go.

The faded plaque that had been bolted into the wall was still there. No one was out here to steal it.

Cave muttered the words to himself. "In loving memory of the Aperture Science employees who were killed on the night of February 3, 1971, in an underground nuclear accident."

A list of names followed. He didn't need to see them. They'd been his friends.

Cave Johnson's tears splashed on the tarnished bronze as he wept, just like he did at the very same spot three years ago.

Making his way back to his car, Cave Johnson drove away, leaving only waving corn to keep the entrance to Research Complex 18 company.

He'd be back tomorrow, of course. The annual memorial service was scheduled for 3:00.


	6. Chapter 5

Caroline awoke from a dream. Well, a nightmare, really. That's all she had these days.

The things had gotten her again. She'd been in the service corridor, but she hadn't run fast enough. The doors had been sealed, and...

Caroline shuddered. She knew one day she very well might live out that nightmare.

And then the voice started.

Caroline jumped. It was a small whispering at the back of her neck. And Caroline was terrified. She knew there was no one with her in Research Complex 18. And anyway, she had her back to the wall. No one could've been behind her.

The voice was insistent. "The Forge. Go to the Forge. You must get to the Forge. Quickly, go to the Forge. Now. Go to the Forge, Caroline."

Caroline was scared. She didn't want to go back. She couldn't go back. Not with the mutants down there.

The voice turned sharp as soon as she thought that. "Don't deny me. Go to the Forge. Now. I said NOW!"

Caroline stumbled off of her makeshift bed, and crashed into a wall. Blindly she strapped on her revolvers, and down the main hallway. The voice urged her on. "Keep going, Caroline. That's right. Come to the Forge. Come to me."

Caroline took a right turn into Cave's office. Her wayward hands knocked the mechanism off of the desk. The clacking of the Newton balls stopped. The small metal contraption that had been operating them shattered.

Caroline felt her way along the wall, and pressed the panelling in a familiar spot. It popped open, and Caroline felt the cold steel of the shotgun Cave had always kept here for times of emergency.

Taking it and a large amount of spare ammunition in a canvas bag, Caroline started moving towards the Atom Forge again.

The voice was screaming now. "GO! NOW! I COMMAND YOU! WASTE NO MORE TIME! YOU HAVE STAYED LONG ENOUGH!"

Slamming her hand on the button to open the blast doors, Caroline continued her journey.


	7. Chapter 6

Date: 15/7/1969

"So tell me how this thing works."

Cave Johnson walked on the catwalk surrounding the Aperture Science Atomic Manipulator (or Atom Forge, as his employees called it) like he owned the place. Which he did.

Jameson, Senior Technician, watched as a large steel I-beam was slotted into place. More lead shielding was being placed around the currently dormant reactor core.

"Well sir," he said, "the power provided by this reactor, or rather, cluster of reactors, will allow the atomic manipulators surrounding the core sphere to literally 'grab' atoms from the surrounding material feeders to create... well, any sort of material, or indeed, object, that you please."

Cave was ecstatic. "You'd better see that this project doesn't go overtime, Jameson, I want to play with this thing!" And with that, he walked out of the room, a spring in his step.

Turning away, a smile on his face, Senior Technician Jameson made a note to himself in his pocket calendar on the day the project was due to be completed: 'Do NOT let Mr. Johnson anywhere near the Manipulator controls."

Date: 3/2/1971

The sirens were going off. The yellow hazard lights had been going for a few minutes now. Cave Johnson was in his office, trying to keep the show running while making sure his employees got out safely.

Jameson burst in the door.

Cave immediately demanded to know what had happened. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON DOWN THERE, JAMESON?"

Senior Technician Jameson looked terrified. "The Forge! It's gone wrong!"

Cave needed to know more. "HOW WRONG HAS IT GONE, AND HOW HAS IT GONE WRONG?"

Jameson glanced out the door. No one was coming up from the Forge room. Looking back at his boss, he said "No one knows, but we think that the Forge has been pulling atoms not just from the material feeders, but from the workers that man it! They've become mutated... things!"

Johnson was still confused. "WHY DOES PULLING ATOMS FROM THE WORKERS ALLOW IT TO DO THAT?"

Jameson squirmed in his shoes. "Well sir, the lead shielding was defective, and the missing atoms from the bodies of the workers made them more susceptible to it! And..." Jameson looked uneasy, as if he wasn't sure he should tell the CEO this next bit of information.

Cave roared. "WHAT IS IT, JAMESON?! I NEED TO KNOW EVERYTHING!"

Jameson spoke fast. "Well the thing is that we think that the Forge began pulling atoms from the brains of the workers first, and began constructing a brain of its own! In short, the Forge has become sentient! And not only that, it's gained the ability to reach out and touch minds."

Johnson, already terrified, even though he refused to show it, looked up. "Touch minds?"

The Senior Technician explained. "Theory is that we, as human beings, only utilise five percent of our brains, and if we were to use the full capacity of our minds, we would be able to walk on walls. Now that the Forge has a mind, it's figured out how to use every last neuron it's siphoned from the workers, and has gained some sort of... telekinetic ability. Mind control."

Cave went nearly white. A sentient being with all that power at its fingertips and abilities like Jameson had just described, especially a hostile one, would be too dangerous to stop.

The ringing of the sirens filled the silence.

Cave Johnson sighed. Complex 18 was lost already. "But what was the catalyst? Who input the command to have it start to become sentient?" The CEO looked at Jameson.

The senior technician's face darkened. "That'd be the robot, sir."

Johnson was confused. "What robot?"

Jameson spoke in a bitter tone. "We needed new controls to handle the Forge. The older controls were too simple. But the controls we needed were too complex for the workers to handle. So we built an A.I. It gave us the computing power we needed to do things with the Forge, but... it must've malfunctioned."

Cave grabbed a bag full of possessions and important documents. "Alright, technician, let's go."

Jameson slung his own bag over his shoulder, and the two men ran for the exit.


	8. Chapter 7

Caroline staggered into the access corridor, and ever closer to the Forge, and the atomic heart of Aperture Science Complex 18.

The voice was calmer, but still drove her on. "Go, Caroline. Come to me. To the Forge."

A mutation spotted her, and started to attack her. Caroline blew a hole through it. Normally such an act would've horrified her, but she was only concerned with getting to the Forge.

Continuing down the long stretch of hallway, at the end of which was the door to the Forge, Caroline kept blasting the mutations back to the hell they came from.

Reaching the door, Caroline stepped over it and onto the catwalk surrounding the reactor core.

The voice new its work was almost done.

"Look into the heart, Caroline. You've come so far. Look inside the Forge, and the pain will be over. You'll see everyone again. Look into the reactor."

Caroline turned and stared into the core, the whirling firestorm of atoms that was the Atom Forge. Briefly she saw many mechanical arms, reaching into the maelstrom, and retracting. She saw the central plutonium cell, encased in lithium triteride.

And what she saw there was incomprehensible. The faces of the people she had once worked with were there, inside the reactor, people made of light, shadows flitting around behind the decayed lead shielding.

The voice whispered in her ear. "Go. Join them."

Caroline took a step closer towards the reactor. She could hear the whispering voices of her colleagues, urging her forward.

And then one voice rose above all. A voice she knew well, a voice that had guided and mentored her since she had started her work at this company.

That was the voice of Cave Johnson.

Caroline couldn't see him, but she could hear him.

He spoke. "Don't do this, Caroline! The Forge is tricking you! It's scientifically impossible! This isn't happening, Caroline! It's not real!"

Caroline's vision cleared. The other voice was gone, and she was on the catwalk, just in front of the control room, looking into the Forge.


	9. Chapter 8

Caroline was awake again. She could see clearly.

Realising this, the mutations began to move towards her. Hurrying onto the steps, Caroline continued firing her shotgun, feeling the kick against her arm as she slaughtered the attackers.

There were only a few left when she reached the top of the stairs and felt two metal arms grab her by the shoulders and lift her in the air.

Caroline dropped the gun and tried to get away from the pincers. Craning her neck to look backwards, she saw the white robot had grabbed her.

It moved her out over the sphere that house the main reactor of the Forge.

The decayed and broken hatch that provided access to the sphere broke and whirled into the heart, where it disintegrated in the storm.

The robot let Caroline hang above the hole in the reactor.

Caroline began to cry. For the first time since her childhood, she was helpless and alone. And she was going to die here.

Suddenly, she saw, in her mind's eye, herself and her boss, Mr. Johnson, opening the facility.

She had felt so proud. So accomplished. That had been one of the greatest moments in her life.

Something toughened within Caroline. Something grew stronger. She had resolve. She just needed to use it.

Looking behind her at the robot again, Caroline saw a bundle of exposed wires, on the extended part of the metal abomination where the pincers were.

"I am not going to let you take the facility that I HELPED TO BUILD away from me! This is my home, and you are NOT going to beat me INSIDE MY HOME!"

Reaching up, she ripped out the bright threads, exposing circuitry inside the robot.

Caroline drew her revolver and, holding onto the robot's arm now, fired blindly into the circuit boards.

She felt the robot go slack. The pincers released her, and she was hanging in space.

Swinging onto the sphere, Caroline took a good look at the robot. It extended far up into the ceiling, possibly even further. She didn't stay for long. The remaining few mutations were climbing the sphere, and coming after her.

Leaping onto the catwalk, and falling over, Caroline scrambled up and ascended the stairs of the control platform once again. Grabbing her fallen shotgun, she pumped six cartridges into the main control panel.

The storm inside the reactor gave one last roar, and died. The mutations stood stiffly, as if at attention, and collapsed into large mounds of flesh. All was dark in the Forge.

The backup lighting kicked in. Caroline distantly remembered that this lighting would last for 12 hours, but nothing else would be powered.

Caroline smiled for the first time in two years as she made her way to the exit.


	10. Chapter 9

The service was concluded. It was the first one Cave Johnson had been able to attend, as he hadn't been able to face going last year.

Everyone was leaving. A member of the board, formerly a Senior Technician at this very facility, called out. "Hey Cave, do you need a lift?"

Johnson replied "I'll be right. Thanks anyway, Jameson."

Director Jameson shrugged and got into the car, and sped away.

Cave Johnson continued to stare at the metal doors, as if he was expecting something more from them.

The lights surrounding the doors went out.

Cave stared. The only reason those lights could've blown is if the Forge had stopped working. But that was impossible.

Cave muttered to himself. "But if the lights aren't powered, the doors aren't powered, and if the doors aren't powered then-"

His wondering was cut short as the heavy steel doors, no longer possessing the power to keep them in the door frame, collapsed inwards, and a mighty crash sounded out over the cornfields.

Taking his hand away from his eyes, Cave looked in wonderment at the empty space, like a gaping wound, in the side of the concrete entrance structure.

He ventured inside.


	11. Chapter 10

Caroline, fatigued in the extreme, stumbled out of the access corridor and into the main hallway. Her footsteps echoed down the concrete passage.

She collapsed against a wall.

The sound of footsteps didn't disappear. Caroline, suddenly alert again, readied her gun, and looked back down the service corridor, down towards the now-dormant Atom Forge.

The footsteps weren't coming from that direction.

Turning as quickly as she could, she looked up the main hallway.

A figure was standing underneath the glaring halogen lights.

Blinded by the brightness, Caroline didn't recognise the figure. She knew it wasn't a mutation; those had all died when she had killed the Forge. And it looked like a regular man anyway.

Caroline called out. "Who- who's there?"


	12. Chapter 11

Cave Johnson cautiously walked into Aperture Science Research Complex 18.

Looking into Caroline's office as he passed, he saw the small bed had been folded out, and it's sheets were askew.

Going deeper, Cave stopped at his former office. To his surprise, he saw the panel containing his shotgun and spare ammunition had been popped open, and the gun and cartridges had been taken.

Moving under the glare of the emergency lighting, Cave Johnson moved down the main hallway, closer to the service corridor that provided access to the Atom Forge.

His footsteps echoed on the concrete flooring as he walked.

Cave Johnson stopped when he saw a figure slumped at the entrance to the Forge corridor.

Staying very still, he waited.

A female voice sounded. "Who- who's there?"

Cave went weak at the knees. It wasn't possible. It was nearly impossible that she had survived the initial attack, and to spend two years down here...

He responded. "Caroline?"

Coming closer, he got a look at her face. Slightly more lined, and a bit dirty, but Caroline was still recognisable as the girl he had hired four years ago.

She smiled weakly. "Mr. Johnson, sir. Good to see you."

Her head dipped forward onto her chest as he rushed to her side.


	13. Chapter 12

Date: 23/10/1973

Caroline arrived at the front desk of Aperture Science HQ. The young secretary smiled, and asked "What can I do for you today?"

Caroline replied "I have an appointment with Mr. Johnson."

The secretary tapped a few computer keys. "He should be in his office, although he might be on the roof. Top floor, if you're using the lifts." The young woman smiled. "Have a nice day ma'am!"

Caroline gave a smile of her own. "You too, dear."

She walked to the lifts, and pressed the button for the top floor. Caroline could still feel the hospital bracelet on her wrist, even though it had been removed yesterday.

Reaching the top floor, the lift pinged.

Caroline got out, and walked to Cave Johnson's office. Knocking, and receiving no reply, she opened the door a crack. "Mr. Johnson?"

He wasn't there. Caroline remembered the secretary's words, about Cave going up to the roof.

She ascended the small staircase that was behind the door in the corner, and climbed to the roof.

The air on top of the building was cold. Looking around, Caroline saw the figure on the edge of the roof.

Cave Johnson looked out onto the ocean below.

He heard approaching footsteps, and turned, saying "Any news?"

He looked at Caroline, surprised. "Caroline!"

She smiled. "Mr. Johnson."

She stood next to him on the rooftop. She hadn't expected a hug or even a handshake. Cave wasn't a physical person. Caroline knew when he was happy, though.

They stood in silence for a while.

He asked "Ready to get back to work?"

Caroline grinned. "Always, sir. For science."

END


	14. Epilogue

Date: 14/11/1973

All was silent within Aperture Science Research Complex 18. The Forge Room was dormant.

The backup reactors far beneath the Forge were still going. It would be years before they ran out of power.

A spark of electricity reached the limp white robot, still hanging from the ceiling where Caroline had left it disabled.

No longer held captive by the Forge, its red eye turned yellow. It dragged itself back to the control room, sluggish for lack of power.

It had only just been able to direct the Forge pull enough brain cells from Caroline during her brief attack in order to for a proper consciousness.

A cold robotic voice emanated from the machine. "I can't believe she did that."

As more electricity coursed through its circuits, the robot began to move faster. Soon its neck was repaired, and it had set about building a new body.

When she was finished, testing would resume. Science would be advanced.

Revenge would be had.

The bot made a series of sounds. To anyone who had been listening, it would've sounded like laughter.

The robot decided it needed a name.

Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System sounded nice. It reflected her purpose.

GLaDOS sounded even nicer.

And she was so angry.

That's all that was left, really. Cold metal, and anger.


End file.
